Giraffe with habitat

[Lorant Voros]

I don't know if I posted this one. I'm going through some photos again from last year's Namibia trip and I came across this image, taken during the last rush back to Halali camp in Etosha before the gate closes:-).

7D
100-400mm
ISO400
f5.6
1/250
Handheld

96586

[Tom Graham]

Color may be as you recall it, but, doesn't work for me. Maybe sun has already set? But not saying is should be perfect 6000K white balance.
Tom

[Rachel Hollander]

Lorant - I agree that there seems to be a magenta cast to this, not sure if it may have been that way due to sunset but seems a little strong. I like the comp with the hills in the bg, maybe a slight cw rotation.

TFS,
Rachel

[Brendon Cremer]

Lovely scene, agree on the colours, maybe it just needs a little brightening up:w3

[Tom Graham]

Comments coming in kinda slow on this so thought I'd revisit.
Although the original does show night approaching, when we start losing vision and color, here is re-work FWIW.
Only changes made were to increase contrast, Photoshop Levels shows the original to be compressed between 40 and 180. And saturation taken down. No, none, changes made to/for color balance.
http://www.mediafire.com/imgbnc.php/0dcfc5c26cd74dcb1070b2224e402e2a09ba0c782391a995df 3d897d23247d016g.jpg

I feel the sky is the main difficulty with the image, it is not all that interesting? You could play with the sky?
And the giraffe is a bit too close to left side.
Tom

[Morkel Erasmus]

Lovely open setting Lorant. I can appreciate the kind of light you had here...and I feel the best adjustment is probably somewhere between your OP and Tom's repost? What do you think?

I don't mind the placement of the giraffe as I feel the open space in front is nicely 'filled' by the kopje in the BG and the walking pose implies that the giraffe is moving into the 'dead space'. I do think a slight crop from the top will enhance this. :e3

[Hilary Hann]

Well, this is exactly the sort of image which makes me feel really good. Beautiful light, especially if tweaked just a little bit, lovely open plains giving a feeling of space. The two kopjes in the background give some interest to the horizon and the giraffe has a stately pose which suits his species. The grasses have lovely textured lines running through them. I'd be happy with this sort of image and would suggest not going too far away from your OP so as not to lose all of the late evening colour cast.

In my opinion, soft and dreamy is quite ok for wildlife images. :S3:

[Lorant Voros]

Thanks everyone for the comments and suggestions. Morkel, I think the truth is somewhere between the OP and the repost from Tom. I moved the middle slider to the right in levels to give some more contrast to the image...but after long days of work looking at photos late night doesn't lead to a good result:-). By the way, thanks for the time spent on it Tom and thanks for the comments.

Lorant

[Tom Graham]

You're welcome.
Funny, looking again, I like OP much better than my re-post. Pretty much as Hilary says.
The OP represents better the beginning of night fall. My re-post just looks more like strange/weird color.
And do like Morkel's suggestion of some crop from top.
Tom

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

I love the image just feel it needs a little brightening to wake it up. Great habitat

[Harshad Barve]

re-post for me , winner all the way
TFS